TRANSMAT2020's Kenneth Sharp Console

[TRANSMAT2020]

A few off screen shots from a session I did with the console (minus the dividing fins) in front of a greenscreen.  The background is from a set of model walls!

As the weather (with luck!) improves, I'll get on with finishing off the dividing fins and getting the transparent central column made, along with some other additions of controls, letters and numbers, etc.  Oh, I tried blue gels with it but they just wouldn't work with the greenscreen.  The pinky red, however, worked beautifully, so I'm sticking with that, with blue or green being substituted for when it's on display only!

I'm nearly there!

[russellsuthern]

That is a beautiful piece of work!

Regards,

Russell

[Cardinal Hordriss]

Great colour choice. It has a far more timeless quality than the green. I was tempted to go in that direction with my time rotor but I haven't the tools or the skill.

[TRANSMAT2020]

That is a beautiful piece of work!

Regards,

Russell

Cheers, Russell!  I'm really pleased with how it's gone, and it's nearly there.  There's still a few more things to complete but I think I'm on the home straight, especially with being able to assemble it outside once again!  The greenscreen set-up was in my living room and I had to compromise on how far away I could get it from the console and how far away I could put the camera!  The actual video will be recorded in a much larger indoor space so, as well as being able to control the lighting, I should have room for two linked greenscreens (at least 20ft wide) and be able to get the whole console into the frame! I'm excited to see how it will look then!

[TRANSMAT2020]

Great colour choice. It has a far more timeless quality than the green. I was tempted to go in that direction with my time rotor but I haven't the tools or the skill.

Cheers! I'm happy with the pinky red, as, though I'm modelling the Pertwee console, it makes a nice little nod to the Tom Baker console's column interior.  I also tried blue, and although it looked great for display, it just didn't work with the greenscreen at all, and caused major problems with keying as it's too similar to green, especially when the greenscreen could be partly seen through it.  Also, because they're transparent, the yellow rectangles appeared as bright green when they overlapped with the blue cylinders.  This created "holes" through which the wall background could be clearly seen, not what I wanted at all!

[TRANSMAT2020]

I've completed the transparent cylinder around the centre column now, so here are a few test photos of the console (minus its panel divider "fins") as part of the control room set (based on "The Three Doctors" set) for the video. 

Since the video shots were taken, I've added on quite a few of the graphics on several of the panels, including the lettering below each of the  lights on the panel with the large central slider control.  These were laser copied onto paper from versions created on Word, carefully cut out by hand with a sharp scalpel and then glued into position.

As for the column, I ended up gluing the top acrylic disc on to the column cylinder, as the thought of drilling into the disc filled me with dread after having had a few hairy moments drilling the holes for the aluminium joining strip.  I had a spare disc on standby just in case of accidents, but the glue worked beautifully and in my opinion looks neater as you can't see any fixings at all!  The greenscreen worked well and I refined the images by adding an extra greenscreen layer for the column area only to give more reflections on the acrylic cylinder's surface.  I also added another layer to add distortion to the TARDIS wall behind the cylinder. I've just realised that I haven't added this distortion layer on pic 1 yet! 

Hope you like the results!

[Volpone]

Ha!  I know a little bit about the difficulties of shooting things and making them look on film the way you want them to look, but I never considered the challenges of trying to shoot something transparent in front of a green screen.  Geez, I can only imagine. 

[ThisJustinOnline]

Wonderful! Looks amazing!

How did you shape the main cylinder for the rotor? Been a stumbling block for me as well!

[Cardinal Hordriss]

It's a beautiful console and great choice of backdrop. I always envision my control room as being like that but with furniture and books etc. in the roundels. Part of me likes those flat roundels we aee in Planet of Evil, a wall of those would be good to hang a painting on or some such.

I still love the time rotor. I've even considered building something like it for my console but I don't think I'd manage it very well.

[fivefingeredstyre]

Wonderful! Looks amazing!

How did you shape the main cylinder for the rotor? Been a stumbling block for me as well!

when Tony Farrell and I built our time rotors we cut a couple of circles out of some mdf to act as formers and rolled the acrylic around the inside of the circles. The mdf holds the material together so you can fix it in place.

[ThisJustinOnline]

Did you have to add heat to roll it though? I am assuming you had to do something to soften it?

I got some Thinner PVC thinking it will be ok, but I am unsure. My particular rotor will be 20" diameter and 36" high.

[TRANSMAT2020]

Thanks for all the lovely comments!  I must admit it's encouragement like this that makes such a project so worthwhile and it means a lot to me.  Thanks, guys! 

I'm just hoping now for some further dry and settled weather so I can assemble the whole thing outside again and finish off some outstanding bits and pieces such as the remaining dividing panel fins, and get the last few controls cast and fitted.

To let you know the details, I used a 900 x 1800 mm, 2mm thick acrylic sheet from the hardware store Wickes for my cylinder, which cost me around £35, and a 22" diameter extruded acrylic disc from Plasticsheets.com for the same price.  I got a spare disc from Simply Plastics for around £40.   I was going to make other formers but, because I was stuck at home with COVID self isolating, but feeling quite well overall, and also anxious to get on with it, after cutting the sheet exactly to size, I decided to try bending it around three pre-made 22" diameter circular MDF formers at the top, middle and bottom.  I had already attached to the acrylic's inside face the aluminium strip with five M5 bolts and nuts at one side.  The other side of the strip was pre-drilled with five holes for fitting to the other end of the sheet. 

As the cylinder was bent around I secured it to the formers and closed the gap between the ends of the sheet with dozens of strips of high quality masking tape to temporarily fix it in position until I had managed to drill the holes for the other side of the metal strip.  The first hole I drilled was the centre one, followed by top, bottom and then intermediate.  It was a very challenging exercise, particularly as the sheet tried its utmost to tear and pull the masking tape and lie flat again!  If I had waited until after I could escape captivity again and my outer formers were made I could have avoided this, but I augmented the tape with some plastic insulating tape and eventually as I placed on more pieces of tape it sat properly all the way from top to bottom without springing apart!  If I was doing it again I'd be more patient and do as Tony and Steve did and make a few reverse MDF formers which would be of square shape, and have a circular hole inside, the diameter of which would equal the diameter of the outside of the cylinder.  With these the acrylic could be curved inside and secured and bolted much more easily, but, hey ho, I got it bolted together successfully with just the interior formers and it's looking great now! 

I removed the formers one by one and, as I did so, glued in both the 6mm thick acrylic top disc and the bottom 6mm thick MDF former over a period of two days with no problems at all, firstly pushing them both about 1cm further into the cylinder, carefully adding a bead of Loctite Extreme Glue around the inside edge of the cylinder and slowly pushing them back into position.  In the case of the top disc I had to do this by poking it gently into place with a broom handle with its end covered in a soft cloth from the other end of the cylinder!  I then taped these up when they were in position and waited 24 hours for each to set rock solid.  I was glad that I hadn't had to heat the sheet to make it pliable as I was worried that this may warp the sheet.  Fortunately the acrylic was quite easy to work with, though I was careful not to bend it too far in case I cracked it! Having said that I slightly cracked one part when I drilled one of the holes for the aluminium strip but it's hardly noticeable at all!

The worst thing about it was that I hadn't realised just how much dust would adhere to the cylinder once the protective plastic was removed!  Thankfully it's settled down now and was fine for when I videoed it, but, for days after, the static charge meant that every time I tried to dust it it just attracted more, including far too many hairs from my pet cat whenever she rubbed herself against it!  It acted on her like a Van der Graaf generator!!!

Anyway, I'll post a few more updates as it nears completion!